Transforming the Air We Breathe: Air Quality Issues in Africa and the Globe

Globally 25% of ambient air pollution in cities from particulate matter (PM2.5) is attributed to traffic, 15% by industrial activities, 20% by domestic fuel burning, 22% from unspecified sources of human origin, including waste, buildings/construction etc. The transport and energy sectors are responsible for most outdoor air pollution, while unclean cooking is a key driver of indoor pollution. Air quality is not only an environmental issue but a health and economic issue at the very least. Just imagine – an estimated 92% of the global population breathes unhealthy air, which causes 7 million premature deaths every year, and costs the global economy $2.9 trillion to $8.1 trillion every year, equivalent to 3.3% - 6.1% of global GDP. In one year, air pollution was linked to 4.5 million deaths from particulate matter (PM2.5), 1.8 billion days of work absence, 4 million new cases of child asthma and 2 million preterm births. Despite these risks, the scale of investment in tackling air pollution lags far behind the scale of the problem. Only about 2% of international public climate finance and about 0.5% of international development finance is spent explicitly on addressing air pollution. The situation is dire even at the policy and regulatory levels. Up to 31% of countries across the globe have not adopted ambient air quality standards (AAQS), yet the legal mandate to adopt such standards exists. 43% of countries lack a legal definition for air pollution, and monitoring mechanisms in national air quality management systems, which are critical to understanding how air quality affects national populations, are not a legal requirement in 37% of countries. On infrastructure coverage, only 49% of country governments produce open air quality data, which means up to 1.4 billion people globally leave in countries without access to this crucial data. ?

Specific to Africa, the harm of air pollution seems to be increasing and is considered the second-largest risk after malnutrition. ?Between the 90s and the mid-2000s, premature mortality from air pollution increased from about 570,000 to over 700,000, even as premature deaths from unsafe water, unsafe sanitation, and childhood malnutrition decreased over the same period. The death rate from air pollution in Africa is 155 deaths per 100,000 people, nearly double the global average of 85.6 deaths per 100,000 people Africa faces some of the world’s most severe health impacts from air pollution – with 5 countries ranking among the 10 most afflicted globally. In one year, air pollution was responsible for 1.1million deaths across Africa, with household air pollution accounting for 697,000 deaths and ambient air pollution for 394,000. In 2013, the cost of air pollution to Africa was estimated to exceed $400 billion, is 6% of GDP now, and under status quo, this is estimated to increase by 600% by 2040. Furthermore, widespread exposure to ambient air pollution in children costs Africa its future human capital and is estimated to cause a loss of intelligence totalling 1.96 billion IQ points per year.

Even with these glaring risks, only 41 cities across 10 countries in sub-Saharan Africa track air quality, which is the critical first step in risk assessment towards devising workable solutions. Only 6% of African children live within 50km of an air quality monitor. On the policy front, only 19 countries in Africa have legally enforceable ambient air quality standards. This lack of coverage goes beyond failures in the availability of diagnostic data and regulatory provisions because even countries with data and enabling policies do not necessarily translate to investment in recommended early warning actions. For example, in Africa, nearly all cities reporting on air quality, most of them have air pollutants that exceed the minimum World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines for air quality. Even among countries with legally enforceable air quality standards, like the 19 countries mentioned above that also have the ability to monitor air quality, their air quality standards do not meet WHO standards. Some cities with air quality monitoring record PM2.5 levels that are more than 4 times the WHO set limits. The implication, therefore, is that there also exists a gap in actions that ensure monitoring data catalyses shifts in socioeconomic investments and behavioural patterns towards addressing air pollution to optimise the impact of air quality monitoring. This shift needs a trigger, which is by way of demonstrating the socioeconomic, enterprise, and investment opportunities that can accrue from addressing air pollution risk and the drivers. It is estimated that every $1 spent on air pollution control can yield an estimated $30 in economic benefits. Data on such returns urgently needs to be contextualised and leveraged as part of air quality initiatives to attract impact investments that optimise the impact of air quality monitoring.

Acting on air quality

The urgency for action is clear, and this can take the following fronts:?

a) Leverage lessons on successful data applications to enhance policy success: From incentivising clean transport and disincentivising fossil-based transport, to enhancing energy efficiency, to circularity in the waste sector, to prioritising air quality in building regulations among others, there are tangible policy steps that can be established to address leading air pollution risk drivers. While policy is the biggest driver of change, its impact depends on effective execution. There are examples of success stories of air quality policy and its effective execution across diverse sectors, that countries across the globe can learn from each other. For example, in the city of, Beijing, China’s capital, a systematic approach based on strong science and coordinated successfully with surrounding cities and regions, saw the concentration of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the air drop by 35% in just 5 years. This combination of data to inform effective policy execution stands out as a very timely strategy to combat pollution.

b) Closing the data-policy divide can also be applied in air quality monitoring, where remote sensing solutions, combining drones with air quality monitors, provides an opportunity to collect and analyse localized, time-bound data, which is very critical to inform localized, time-bound policy decisions. For example, with the globe urbanizing, the case for clean transport can be made from the lens of monitoring air quality, such that places with very high loads of particulate matter pollutants from vehicles for example, implement very targeted policies – such as “no cars” in cities only bicycles allowed etc.

c) Innovative investment plans for air pollution action: there is an urgent need to elevate the conversation on air pollution from a “social” or “environment” only focus to an “investment” focus. Air quality strategies for cities need to include elaborate plans on how to attract private enterprise to invest in air quality. For example, air quality monitoring systems market is on a growth trajectory valued at $4.9 billion in 2023 and projected to reach $6.9 billion in 2028 – a 7% compound growth rate. Innovative approaches like leveraging sports as a platform can go a long way to actualise this growth. Specifically, combining sports and air quality can go a long way in enhancing access to air monitoring in cities. Sports stadia can become more that theatres of entertainment and offer a platform to drive investment in air quality monitoring, where manufacturers of air quality monitors work with sports federations to install monitors in sports infrastructure – mostly stadiums, in exchange for advertising and promotional space in these stadiums and other sports merchandise e.g., on players’ jerseys.

d) Leverage accessible solutions: in some of the most vulnerable communities – such as in sub-Saharan Africa, it is reported that actions in certain sectors – including cleaner and more efficient public transport, cleaner cookstoves and alternative fuel sources; greener industrial technologies and energy systems; reduction of slash and burn land clearing, and open waste incineration, can see 4 major cities in Africa, replace the vicious cycle of pollution and health impacts with a virtuous cycle of over 120,000 lives saved and $20 billion in economic benefits between 2023-2040. Among these, clean cooking stands out as the most accessible, low lying fruit area. Up to 63% of air pollution deaths in Africa were linked to exposure to household air pollution, and these deaths have been increasing. Indeed, an estimated 75% across sub Saharan Africa depend on unclean cooking. Transitioning these populations to cleaner cooking will be a solid step to enhancing air quality among the most vulnerable. Fiscal incentives, such as eliminating value added tax on accessible clean cooking solutions of waste recovery to briquettes, biogas etc., and increasing tax on unclean cooking sources, will go a long way to catalyse market shifts away from unclean cooking and attract local investments to accessible clean cooking solutions. Some, like fuel briquettes, have been shown to be up to 2 times cheaper than unclean charcoal, and such policies will go a long way to accelerate the shift to cleaner cooking.?

e) embrace a new dimension of air quality monitoring and early warning that catalyses early action – the Early Warning for the Environment (EWE): the application of sensors and satellites to monitor air quality is only one dimension. It largely generates data on the state of air quality – which is at the midstream. But for protective and corrective actions to be taken to restore and enhance air quality, there is a need to establish causes at the upstream – whose impact can be both slow-onset such as particulate matter pollution from fossil fuel burning, methane emissions from waste, or rapid-onset such as toxic gas leaks, forest fires, sandstorms, volcanic ash releases among key ones, whose impact on human health and the environment is rapid or fast acting. There is a need to match the upstream risk causes and the midstream state of air quality to workable solutions such as eliminating open waste dumping and burning through the application of technologies such as biodigesters, investing in clean transport, installation of scrubbers on industrial exhaust, prioritising non-motorised transport or application of electrostatic precipitators (ESP) to remove particles from air, to address both the risk causes at the upstream, and restore air quality at the midstream. These solutions then need to be optimised and matched to their investment potential and investment planning to attract and catalyse needed investments to drive uptake of said solutions.

Investment planning covers monitoring of key enablers – i.e., financial viability in the form of viable financing approaches and potential for profitability that can be derived from the solutions uptake; social enablers, e.g., the need for skills and capacity enhancement to develop and implement solutions in an enterprising way, the necessary policy incentives that need to be in place to enhance solutions uptake – including tax breaks & waivers, among others, and market enablers in the form of product lines arising from the solutions that can fetch a market. For example, biodigester solutions can generate biogas and biofertilizer which are product lines that can fetch a premium in the market and create enterprise and income opportunities. On policy enablers targeted incentives, e.g., fiscal incentives like tax holidays and tax breaks for enterprises engaged in developing biodigesters can be timely. Socially, non-fiscal incentives such as prioritising skills retooling in developing solutions like biodigesters in technical training institutions, including village polytechnics, etc., are examples of social enablers that are critical. On financial enablers, analysing potential for profits of such solutions, where for instance, a 10 cubic metre biodigester, can convert 1000 kgs of organic waste intercepted weekly into market viable products – i.e., over 2000 litres of biofertilizer and 144 cubic metres of biogas every month - that is used and traded in the local community to generate profit – of up to 500% in biofertilizer alone, is critical.?

Consequently, turning air quality monitoring and early warning into early action calls for a value chain approach covering upstream monitoring of air pollution risk sources e.g., landfills and other waste dumps etc., to the midstream state of air quality, to the end-of-pipe impacts at the downstream, where the focus is on monitoring of potential solutions for optimisation, and their investment potential, to drive uptake. In addition, for the solutions and investment component, secondary and tertiary data sources through literature review of case studies can be leveraged to make a case for investment planning in the uptake of solutions in different areas. This holistic approach is the EWE that now needs to be the core of air quality monitoring in Africa and the globe to catalyse much needed early action to protect and restore air quality.??

Conclusion

Air quality is at the heart of global socio-economic and environmental progress. Ignoring it will be at the expense of human, environmental, and economic health. It is high time the globe prioritises action building on quick wins, and already established successes, as discussed herein, knowing full well the words of an insightful African proverb – that “if you wish to move mountains tomorrow, you must start by lifting stones today”.

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